Metabolism Booster - Green Tea For Weight Loss

Despite its "superfood" status, very few people know how to use green tea for weight loss.

Thermogenesis is the crucial bodily process here - the process by which your body naturally heats up in response to certain foods (mustard, chilli (cayenne pepper), yerba mate and caffeine also bring about the same process).

So get sipping, and start losing ... is it really as simple as that?

How effective is it?

No doubt there is a benefit in drinking green tea for weight loss. When I first started as a coach, green tea was an option - now it's compulsory. Comparing the results of my clients now with those who started without it, I am convinced there is a real life benefit - not just a theoretical one.

That's why I insist on it and it's in every program I recommend and supply. And you should drink green tea too.

Client story: fast inch loss

Kathryn C. is a hardworking executive in Auckland, New Zealand and her story is one of the best. She was using my favorite green tea beverage (see below) as a sports drink whilst power-walking as part of a comprehensive weight loss program.

Now don't get me wrong - she was serious-as-a-heart-attack committed - losing weight wasn't a "should" for her, but a "must", so her power-walks weren't simply jaunts through the woods, they were full-on, committed blasts. Just the way you should "go after" exercise if you really want results. Why do things by halves?

Well Kathryn got a bit more than she bargained for... After two 2-hour power walks taking the green tea beverage as she went (2 litres on each walk in the hot sun) over the course of just one weekend she'd lost so many inches that she literally couldn't get a skirt to stay up on Monday morning when she got dressed to go to work - "hula-hooping in her skirts" was the way she put it. It was so serious, that she feared losing her skirt in an important meeting that day and had to wear trousers with a belt!

The big problem is...

... people don't like green tea! In its rawest form green tea can be bitter and difficult to palate, so there aren't many converts to it initially.

Green Tea for weight loss enhancement

Remember, that just drinking green tea isn't a weight loss program on its ownIt is fantastic, but unless you're going to be replacing huge amounts of sugar-rich drinks like Coke, switching to Green Tea is not going to make the difference between gaining weight right now and losing it, unless you make other changes in your diet - it's not a silver bullet.

40-50 calories burned per cup are the figures I've heard touted around by manufacturers of products which contain green tea in an average weight adult. If you're overweight this figure rises!

I don't know how accurate those claims are, but let's assume they're in the right ball park. In calorie terms that's about the same as a small yoghurt, a piece of fruit or a small cookie.

The value of green tea for weight loss

An article about Green Tea in the International Journal of Obesity (Dulloo et al. Feb 2000) reported that "...stimulation of thermogenesis could be of value in assisting the management of obesity." - so it's official.

And Green Tea is really valuable as a replacement for sugar laden coffee or regular tea (one teaspoon of sugar is 15-25 calories). Just think about it - instead of having coffee with milk and two sugars adding 75 calories per cup to your daily intake, green tea would have the effect of winning you back calories.